Pineapple Cake with Whipped Cream icing

I enjoy baking and icing cakes. I have been trying out a variety of  cakes off late. One of my friends suggested that the next time I bake a cake, I should make a pineapple cake. Well, it was her birthday recently and I got an opportunity to try it out. I decided to make it for her. I was able to work the pineapple into the cake batter and infuse a good amount of pineapple flavor into the cake, by adding chopped pieces into the layers of the cake. I was very happy with the result. I iced it with a lightly sweetened whipped cream icing. Absolutely delicious!

Ingredients
Cake
1and 1/4 cups, plus 2 tbsp of all purpose flour (maida)
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter - room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup pineapple juice (unsweetened)
1/4 cup pineapple pieces, canned and chopped finely

Icing
2 cups  heavy whipping cream
4 tsps powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Filling
1/4 cup pineapple pieces, canned and chopped finely
whipped cream icing (see above)

Method
Pineapple Cake
Grease a baking dish with some butter and dust with some all purpose flour. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Sieve all the dry ingredients together and keep aside. Sieve these ingredients a couple of times. In another bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar. Beat it till the butter is fluffy. Add one egg at a time to this and beat each egg into the mixture till it is nice and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence. Add one third of the dry ingredients to the batter and fold it in. Then add half of the pineapple juice and mix. Alternate between the pineapple juice and the dry ingredients till they are all incorporated into the batter. Then add the pineapple pieces to the batter and fold it in carefully. Do not over mix and deflate the batter.

Bake the cake at 350 F for about 30 minutes. Use a knife and insert it into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean then the cake is ready. If not, bake for a few more minutes.
Take if out and let the pan cool on a wire rack for 10-15 mins. Then invert the pan onto the cooling rack and slide the cake out. Let the cake cool if you wish to ice it.

Icing
In a mixing bowl, mix the heavy cream, essence and sugar and using a hand mixer or whisk, whisk it till the cream has thickened and when you lift the whisk, the cream stays in peaks.

Assembly
Slice the cake into two pieces horizontally. Ice the lower layer with a layer of whipped cream. Next spread out an even layer of the pineapple pieces on top of the whipped cream layer. Then place the next cake layer of the cake on top. The whipped cream and pineapple pieces are sandwhiched between the two cake layers. Then cover the cake with the whipped cream icing. Decorate with maraschino cherries and pineapple pieces.

Tips 
Raw pieces of pineapple are quite tough and hence use canned pineapple in this recipe.
While making the batter, ff the eggs are separated and the whites beaten separately before being added to the batter, the cake will be lighter. You can add the yolks right after the butter and sugar. But fold in the egg whites after all the dry ingredients are incorporated into the batter.
Wrap the cake in foil and then some plastic wrap before you freeze it. The cake will stay in the freezer from a couple of weeks to a month. The cake should be completely cooled down before icing it. If need be, refrigerate the cake or freeze it for an hour before you ice it.